My Birthday

So, Monday was my birthday. And not just any birthday. It was my 20th birthday. This officially means that I’m some kind of adult and am no longer a teenager. It means I’M OLD!! (Ok, I’m sure in a few decades from now I’ll be wondering how I could possibly think of 20 as old, but entering another decade is scary! I’ve only done it once before and I was distracted by going into double figures and being one step closer to being a teenager – why is being a teenager so desirable anyway?!). It didn’t help that I received this message in a card from my friends:

To be fair, it was his birthday not too long ago and I might have mentioned in his card that he’s now halfway to middle aged (a decision I entirely regret now as the same applies to me – not so funny now!).

As I didn’t have any lectures on Monday, I decided to go home on Sunday and come back on Monday evening so I could see my family on my birthday. It was very weird actually, because everyone was at school or work apart from my mum so I had her all to myself for the day. I started the day in the best way possible – with croissants and nutella and home made hot chocolate. I’d never made hot chocolate properly before, but since having it in a little cafe last week when my mum visited, I’ve wanted to give it a go. And it turned out to be SO EASY! All you have to do is break up some good quality chocolate – we chose dark – put it in the bottom of a glass and then add hot milk to it.

Step 1 – Measure out milk into glasses:

Step 2 – Heat milk in a saucepan:

Step 3 – Chop up posh chocolate:

Step 4 – Add chocolate to glass/mug:

Step 5 – Add hot milk to glass/mug:

Step 6 – Stir and add remaining chocolate flakes:

Add to croissants and you have yourself the perfect chocolatey birthday breakfast! (Although I did have to sneakily add some milk chocolate because it was a little too dark for my delicate taste buds).

Just after we’d finished breakfast, there was a loud knock at the door which could only be one person – the postman. Ooh, the postman knocking on the door on my birthday! Must mean there’s something too big to fit through the letterbox! Oh, a parcel? Hand addressed to Alice Murphy? On my birthday? How exciting! My mum and I stood there for about 5 minutes trying to decipher the handwriting and coming up blank – “Oh it could be so and so. Oh no, they don’t have my address. What about this person?” And so on. In the end, I couldn’t bare the anticipation any longer and tore the paper open. With paper and bubble wrap flying everywhere and both of us eager to know who had sent this mystery parcel, I found out who had ordered the present. Me. That’s right, this parcel was addressed to me because a few days beforehand I ordered a Christmas present for Tiny Tin Bird which I completely forgot about until it was staring up at me surrounded by shreds of paper. Still, opening presents is half the fun isn’t it, even when they’re not actually for you!

With that excitement over, we decided to go on a walk. It was mostly the same route as this walk and instead of golden Autumn sunlight, we had blistering winds and spots of rain. It was still good to get rid of all the cobwebs that gather when you live most of the year in a town though. This first picture was when we walked in September and the second is the same point but a few metres further back this weekend. It’s stunning to see the change in what seems like a few weeks!

And a few more pictures for comparison:

Overall it was a very muddy, slightly windy, but enjoyable walk.

(Spot the bags under my eyes from my birthday night out!)

My mum was wearing new walking boots instead of wellies, which meant she had to play hopscotch over the really muddy parts. She got quite good at lunging for fences after a while!

Once we’d got back and had some lunch and some much needed showers, we headed over to my grandma’s house for a catch up. It’s always nice seeing her and it felt like a Saturday afternoon before I left for uni, when we’d go over for a cup of tea and some biscuits. After that, it was time to pick Rachel and Patch up from work and a school trip and then go home for a birthday tea. For our birthdays, we always either eat out somewhere or have what I call a ‘bitty tea’ – made up of little bits and pieces like pizza and bread and dips and cheese and crisps. Yum Yum YUM!!

And of course, the centre piece is always the birthday cake. And of course, it has to be chocolate. Oh, it was so good! Even the piping was done in melted white chocolate onto melted milk chocolate, my mum definitely knows what I like!

Once we’d finished, I was whisked over to university to my friends’ house where we played Articulate, ate cake, and had a generally good time. The best bit was that I got to spend time with my family and friends on my birthday – I didn’t think I’d be able to once I was at uni, but I managed it and I’m so pleased I did!